On November 2, 2006, an outstanding literary critic-Africanist, Doctor of Philology, Professor Irina Dmitrievna Nikiforova passed away. Her outstanding personality was and remains a landmark for Russian African studies.

I. D. Nikiforova was born on September 15, 1931 in Moscow in the family of an employee. In 1954, she graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. Defended in 1962 at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute. After completing her PhD thesis on Belgian literature ("The formation of the worldview and creative method of E. Verharn"), Irina Dmitrievna in the mid-1960s. with her characteristic scientific intuition, she drew attention to the literary process that was practically not studied in Russian philology - the development of literatures in European and local (written) languages in African countries.

Working at the Gorky Institute of Literature since 1961, Irina Dmitrievna gathered around her young literary scholars from Moscow (MSU, Lenin Moscow State Pedagogical Institute, Institute of Africa of the USSR Academy of Sciences) in the sector of "African Literatures" (Department of Asian and African Literatures) created in 1975, a unique scientific education that leads comprehensive research projects., both historical and literary and theoretical studies of African literature. In 1979. Irina Dmitrievna defended the first doctoral dissertation in our country on the literature of Africa "The African novel". This fundamental work examines the process of origin and formation of a novel genre new to African literatures, its interrelation with European forms, and its national-specific features. Having the qualities of a natural leader and organizational talent, I. D. Nikiforova created a school of African literary scholars, which brought together specialists from Moscow, Leningrad, Simferopol, Odessa, Kiev, Novosibirsk, and Tbilisi. It has trained graduate students from our country and abroad who have successfully defended their dissertations on African literature. I. D.'s brilliant erudition and depth of theoretical analysis. Nikiforova is distinguished by her monographs: ("Literature of the National Renaissance. On the creative work of writers from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria "(Moscow, 1968); " On national specifics.-

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no-African literature" (Moscow, 1970); " The African Novel. Genesis and problems of typology" (Moscow, 1977), as well as numerous articles devoted to the literature of the Maghreb, West and Tropical Africa, Madagascar, the Antilles, and Belgian literature.

I. D. Nikiforova devoted a lot of time and effort to scientific and organizational work, being the head and responsible editor of many collective works devoted to the problems of evolution, typology and national-specific forms of development of African literatures in European and African languages (Arabic, Swahili, Hausa). languages. An indisputable recognition of the merits of the African literary critic I. D. Nikiforova is that a number of her works have been published abroad: "Research in African Literatures", University of Texas Press, Vol. 10, November 4, 1987; "Special Inter-literary Communities", Bratislava, 1992 (in Russian). Slovak); " Regard russe sur les litteratures francophones "("Russian view of French-language literatures"), Paris, 1997.

With Irina Dmitrievna's characteristic desire for creative search for new problematic perspectives in the research of African literatures, she coordinated the participation of employees of her sector in the works of other departments of IMLI: the Department of Theory, the departments of European and Latin American literatures.

Colleagues and students of Irina Dmitrievna will make every effort to bring to the publication the collective works in which she took part.

Irina Dmitrievna's great diligence, highly responsible attitude to her duties, her bright mind, initiative and energy, constant responsiveness and willingness to help colleagues, scientific youth, and her human charm will always remain in our memory.

Colleagues and friends

MAIN SCIENTIFIC WORKS OF I. D. NIKIFOROVA

On the threshold of tomorrow (On some problems of literature in West African countries) / / Voprosy literatury. 1961, N 10.

The Social Novel of Haiti in the 40s-50s of the XX century // Genesis of Socialist Realism in the literature of Western countries, Moscow, 1965, pp. 313-340.

Post-war literature of France (1945-1963) / / Course of lectures on the history of foreign literature of the XX century. Moscow, 1965.

Modern Algerian novel / / Critical realism of the XX century and modernism. Moscow, 1967. pp. 119-158.

Literature of national revival. On the creative work of writers from Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria, Moscow, 1968, 48 p.

The problem of the region in the study of African literature // Actual problems of the study of the literatures of Africa. M., 1969. P. 153 - 158.

On the national specifics of West African literatures, Moscow, 1970, 136 p.

Section on the French-language poetry of West African literatures (Chapter VI) / / Modern Literatures of Africa. Severnaya i Zapadnaya Afrika [North and West Africa], Moscow, 1973, pp. 186-269.

Poeziya Zhaka Rabemanandzary [Poetry of Jacques Rabemanandzary]. Osnovnye problemy afrikanistiki [Main Problems of African Studies], Moscow, 1973.

Literature of the Malagasy Republic // Modern literatures of Africa. Vostochnaya i Yuzhnaya Afrika [Eastern and Southern Africa], Moscow, 1974.

Surrealism and "Negro-African Poetry" / / Vzaimosvyazi afrikanskikh literatur i literatur mira. Moscow, 1975. (Editor's note).

An African novel. Genesis and problems of typology, Moscow, 1977, 238 p.

Features of the origin of the novel in the literature of Tropical Africa / / Genesis of the novel in the literature of Asia and Africa. National origins of the genre, Moscow, 1980, pp. 251-263.

Puti stanovleniya romana [Ways of becoming a novel]. 1983, N11.

Razvitie i osobennosti romannykh formov v literaturakh Afrika [Development and features of novel forms in African Literatures]. Ditto: Research in African Literature. University of Texas Press. 1987. Vol. 18, N 4.

Semben Usman-writer of new Africa / / Africa. Literary almanac. Issue 4. Moscow, 1983.

Mass literature - specifics and functions (introductory article) / / Mass literature in the countries of Asia and Africa, Moscow, 1985, pp. 13-15. together with A. N. Senkevich).

Subsection "Literature" in the section "General overview" / / Africa. Encyclopedic reference Book, T. I. M., 1986.

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Writers of Tropical Africa on the social experience of the liberated countries / / Actual problems of modern Africa. Issue 2. Moscow, 1988.

African literature // History of foreign literature. 1945-1980. Moscow, 1989.

Race and revolution. Aimee Sezer's Way / / Africa. Literary panorama. Issue 10. Moscow, 1989.

Literature of the African continent. Introduction / / History of World Literature, vol. 7. Moscow, 1991, pp. 690-695.

Specificity of comparative study of modern African literatures (methodological aspects) / / Interaction of cultures and literatures of the East and West. Issue 2. Moscow, 1992, pp. 257-268.

Mezhliteraturnye obshchnosti Tropicheskoi Afrika v sistemnom i sravnitel'nom aspekte [Inter-literary communities of Tropical Africa in a systematic and comparative aspect]. Bratislava, 1992 (in Slovak).

Problemy mezhdistsiplinarnogo izucheniya sovremennoi kul'tury afrikanskikh stran [Problems of interdisciplinary study of modern culture of African countries].

Problemy izucheniya dinamiki sovremennykh kul'turnykh protsessov v regione Tropicheskoi Afrika [Problems of studying the dynamics of modern cultural processes in the region of Tropical Africa].

Naissance et metamorphoses du roman dans les litteratures africaines d'expression franchise (problemes de recherche) // Regards russes sur les litteratures francophones. P., 1997. P. 177 - 200.

Bibliographie selective des traductions russes des auteurs francophones d'Afrique Noire et des critiques russes consacrees a la litterature negro-africaine d'expression francaise (Selective bibliography of Russian translations of French-speaking writers of Black Africa and works of Russian criticism devoted to French-speaking Negro-African literature) // Regards russes sur les litteratures francophones. 1997.

Le roman africain de langue francaise en Russie // Cahiers de l'Association Internationale des Etudes Franceses. Mai 2000, N 52 (Communication au LI e Congres de l'Association, juillet 1999) (Francophone African novel in Russia / / Notes of the International Association for Humanitarian Studies of France. May 2000, N 52.

Regional'nye i stadial'nye modifikatsii literaturnogo protsessa [Regional and stadium modifications of the literary process]. Teoriya literatury, vol. IV. Literaturnyi protsess, Moscow, 2001.

Novoe izmerenie francoyazychnoi poezii (Tvorchestvo Chikaya U Tam'si) [A new dimension of French-language poetry (Creativity of Chikaya U Tam'si)]. Problems of modern philology. To the 60th anniversary of the scientific activity of Academician N. I. Balashov, Moscow, 2002.

Typological features of the literary process of modern and contemporary times in the countries of Asia and Africa ("non-European" model of literature development as a subject of comparative analysis). Experience of the XX century. (Rel. Ed. together with M. D. Gromov). Moscow, 2002.

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